


Herculaneum by Night

by Haggis (Karen121968)



Series: Kate Stewart/Osgood [2]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 07:03:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15925331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karen121968/pseuds/Haggis
Summary: The intrepid UNIT team have some undercover work to find out what lies beneath the volcanic deposits of Herculaneum.This follows on from "Its All Fun and Games Until the Slime Mould Spores Escape" and I decided on a shorter title this time!





	1. Chapter 1

Kate was pacing in the kitchen and Osgood counted her steps. “Oh boy” she muttered when the blonde stopped and pinched the bridge of her nose. Osgood scanned her laptop, willing the broadband connection to speed up and give her the answer she needed before her boss hung up.

“Dammit” Kate ground out as she finished the call and gave serious thought to tossing her phone into the dishwater in her sink. 

“Don’t” Osgood said softly “It took two days to properly dry out the last one” she reminded Kate of the fate of the phone when she’d been told the budget was being cut. In retrospect, she thought, it would be safer if these calls came when they were in the office and not near domestic sources of phone-killing water.

“Sorry” Kate ran her hand through her hair and dropped her phone in her pocket. “Where are we?” she sat down next to Osgood at the kitchen table.

Osgood watched the data slowly updating on her screen. “It’s going to take a while to set up the backdoor access to the RaCIS head office” she looked up and realised that Kate wanted more. “We don’t want to cause any more offense, I’m trying to get the information we need without them ever finding out”

“I know, I’m sorry” Kate rubbed her eyes. “I just hate losing anyone from our teams and the idiot Colonel in Rome has made an impossible situation even worse” she sat back, crossing her legs and folding her arms to stop herself from fidgeting. She hated this part of any new encounter, where they only had 10% of the picture and no real idea of what they were up against. Glancing around she remembered that she’d been washing dishes when her call came in and she stood with a sigh to finish the chore. Ten minutes later she’d put away the dried dishes and wiped down all of the worktops. Nibbling on a cheese straw that she’d made earlier that day she sat down beside the brunette. “Anything useful yet?” she offered her the plate and Osgood smiled and crunched through a flakey cheese straw as well. 

“Ma’am” Osgood coughed and drank the last of her now cold coffee to get rid of the crumbs in her throat. “Sorry” she started again. “The remains were found on the west coast of Italy near a town called Ercolano” she looked up to see if Kate had any questions and took the wave of one hand as a signal to continue. “You’ll know it better by its former name, Herculaneum” she took her glasses off to clean.

“Vesuvius, pyroclastic flow and Pompeii near neighbour?” Kate dragged historical facts from her memory. “Disappeared completely under the deposits from the eruption in 79 AD”

“Perfect ma’am” Osgood smiled at Kate’s smug grin. “So the eruption left a layer of tufaceous material that effectively covered what had been there before and preserved it”

“So why is anyone surprised that there are skeletal remains under the deposits?” Kate asked.

Osgood scanned a couple more emails. “The remains are close enough to be mistaken for human on a cursory examination” Osgood stopped to take a sip of her coffee before she remembered it was empty. She continued explaining the situation to Kate as she walked behind her and set the coffee machine working again. “But they were found quite a distance away from the only other skeletons found in the old boathouses” she waited until she could top up both of their mugs before continuing. “Even that wouldn’t have alerted us if it hadn’t been for the mosaic floor that the UNIT team from Rome were already scanning and removing from the ruined temple about two miles away”

“So we have a tiled floor, an overzealous Italian Colonel and broken bones all from nearly two thousand years ago” Kate sipped her coffee. “So what happened that my lazy Sunday with my favourite nerd is being interrupted?” she asked.

“You’re the biologist” Osgood smiled and turned her laptop to show Kate the photographs she’d hacked from the forensic lab in Naples. 

Kate put her reading glasses on and paged through the photographs and descriptions of the bones and surrounding artifacts that had been recovered from the scene and sent for investigation. “Time travelers or aliens?” Kate tried to narrow it down but Osgood just shrugged.

“Os please” Kate felt a headache spread from the back of her head down her neck. “I was planning on catching up on documentaries while my girlfriend ran her hands through my hair….” she took a deep breath and blew it out slowly “just tell me what I need to do now to make that happen sometime soon”

“I can’t keep calling you ma’am when you say things like that” Osgood smiled apologetically. “Two more minutes” she promised and waited for Kate to nod her agreement. “Normally we’d have the local UNIT teams persuade the police that the remains fell under our jurisdiction” Osgood held up her hand to forestall any interruptions. “However, the accident in the harbour that caused the death of the UNIT sergeant has muddied the waters a little”

“Understatement” Kate huffed and dropped her glasses on the table. “Accusing the Italian Navy of causing the accident in front of the town Mayor did more than muddy the waters and the Colonel confirmed that we won’t get permission to go near the site in an official capacity” Kate stared into the distance. 

“Maybe Sam could figure out a way….” Osgood suggested.

“I need Sam to be in New Zealand next week” Kate shook her head and didn’t offer any further details. “Can you speak Italian?” she asked after several more minutes of silence.

“Me?” Osgood looked surprised. “No, not really, I did some German at school but that was a while ago” she blushed, trying to forget the enormous crush she’d had on her languages teacher in high school.

“In that case, we’ll need to be hapless British tourists” Kate put her hands on the table and pushed herself up from her seat. “We’ll get the details worked out tomorrow, let me phone the Colonel and he can get started on the background stories” she headed towards the garden, calling the Tower as she stepped onto the patio and watched the rain splash on the greenhouse.

“Wait” Osgood was now talking to herself but still looked around to see if she was missing something. “We’re going to Italy?” 

******************************

Osgood rolled onto her back, breathing heavily. “Did it help?” she turned to look at Kate, a soppy grin on her face.

Kate’s forearm rested over her eyes as she tried to get her breath back. “Mmmm” she finally mumbled and heard Osgood chuckle at her unusual lack of eloquence. “Shut up” she managed to string two words together.

Osgood smiled and waited for her girlfriend to gather herself. They’d been together for nearly eight months now and she still struggled to reconcile the ‘new relationship giddiness’ with the feeling that she could barely remember a time before Kate entered her life romantically. She was enjoying the ‘honeymoon’ phase though, the freedom she felt to explore their likes and dislikes together in bed was new for her. “You’re wonderful” she sighed and stretched down to pull the quilt back up over them.

“You empty my brain” Kate finally felt able to stretch, unknotting the last few stiff muscles from her earlier forays into the garden and the more recent, more pleasurable tightness from the orgasm that had rendered her speechless. “The headaches gone but I’m not sure I can feel my legs” she rolled onto her side and pulled the grinning brunette into her arms.

“I love you” Osgood searched the brown eyes staring into her own, watching the crinkle of the edges as a smile settled on Kate’s face.

“I love you too” Kate leaned in for a slow kiss and hummed as they both wriggled to find a comfortable position lying in each other’s arms. “I feel like we’ve always been this comfortable together” Kate sighed. “Did you mind wipe me to forget a time before you seduced me?”

Os opened her mouth to deny that she’d ever used a mind wipe on her but decided not to lie outright. “I seduced you?!” she pretended outrage and hoped that Kate hadn’t noticed the slight hesitation.

Kate laughed, her post-orgasmic brain would only have noticed Osgood’s brief moment of concern if it had lasted for several minutes. “That’s how I recall the events, yes”

“You chatted me up!” Osgood enjoyed the teasing byplay as she leaned in for a brief kiss.

Kate lengthened the kiss, slowly rolling onto her back and letting Osgood settle against her shoulder. “You kissed me first,” she said hoarsely.

“You were being gorgeous and drop-dead sexy first” Osgood insisted and leaned in to kiss her again. Maybe the argument wasn’t that important but she was competitive and enjoyed the byplay as they settled into a brief nap before supper.


	2. Chapter 2

“Ma’am” the Colonel held the door open as Kate strode into the Tower early the next morning. 

“Briefing in ten minutes?” she confirmed with him and headed to her office to check her messages.

“Thank you” Osgood smiled at the older man as he continued to hold the door for her. “Did you have a nice weekend?” she asked as he fell into step beside her.

“I was on duty but it was quiet apart from the Naples thing” he followed her into the lab. “I wanted a word before the briefing” he explained his slightly strange behaviour.

“Yes?” she asked as she dumped her bag on the desk and hung her coat up. 

“We have a slight issue with the paperwork for your trip” he almost seemed nervous, which was worrying considering his lack of nerves when faced with the worst that the universe had thrown at them so far.

“We can’t fly out today?” Osgood was relieved, she had hoped to pack her bags the previous evening before Kate had put forward some very clear arguments why they really needed to stay in bed.

“You’re both booked on the 15.20 from Gatwick” he handed over a package of documents. “The new documents department pulled these together at short notice” he swallowed and left her to figure out what had been messed up.

Osgood frowned and wrinkled her nose, waiting for him to give her more information. When he didn’t say anything else she pushed her glasses back up her nose and glanced through the documents. “Jane Smith and Carol Brown” she tutted “Not very imaginative” 

“Not where the problem lies” he crossed his arms, glancing at his watch.

Osgood took the hint and returned to scanning the documents. “Travel journalist and assistant working for an obscure trade magazine doing a feature on a boutique hotel chain” Osgood muttered as she shuffled through background details, nothing leaping out at her that would cause the concerns the Colonel obviously had. Finally the only thing left to check was the passports and she quickly flipped them both open to the photograph pages.

The Colonel watched as the young woman double checked the passports before dropping them on the desk and returning to the background covers written up for both of them. He saw the moment that she realised what had happened. “There isn’t time to change the passports” 

“Have they never met us?” Osgood asked in surprise. “I mean how could anyone get this so wrong?” she walked round the desk and sank into her chair. “We’ll need to change the flights to tomorrow and get new passports”

************************************

Kate sat at the head of the conference table, reading through emails on her laptop as the senior staff arrived in ones and twos. Osgood and Colonel Shindi were the last to arrive and she watched as they appeared to argue over a folder before the Colonel shook his head and moved to sit on Kate’s right. “Vikram?” she asked quietly as everyone else shuffled papers and sorted out coffee or tea.

“Let’s get started” he replied equally as quietly and avoided meeting her gaze. She turned to watch Osgood finally settling into the chair on her left. “Everything alright?”

“Ma’am” Osgood nodded but also kept her eyes on the table in front of her.

Ten minutes later the plan for initial reconnaissance was agreed and Kate was staring at the passport she held in her hand. “You have got to be kidding me” she turned to Osgood and saw her pinched lips. “We’ll change the flights, leave tomorrow instead”

“We can’t do that ma’am” Shindi braced himself for the raised eyebrow he knew was coming. “The site is due to be completely excavated by Thursday, we only have two days to gather as much information as we can before someone starts to notice that they aren’t human remains”

“Can we do this?” Kate didn’t bother arguing with the Colonel, turning instead to give all of her attention to Osgood. 

“You want me to order you about as my lackey for two days?” Osgood pretended not to hear the chuckles from around the table. “Only if I get to still be the bossy one when we get back and talk to whoever messed this up”

Kate picked up the passport in front of her again “Carol Brown” she tapped the edge of the passport before blowing out a deep breath. “We’ll be fine” she threw the passport down on the table. “And let’s make sure this is the last cock-up on this operation” 

Shindi waited for everyone else to leave before he turned to Kate. “I’m sorry Kate” he said quietly. “It’s only for a couple of days and I’ll keep trying to get us official access from the local government”

“It’s fine, I’m sure I can pretend to be a gopher for a couple of days” she waved her hand. “It’s not the first time we’ve been undercover and at least it’s not a tropical rainforest infested with evolving Daleks this time”

**************************************

Osgood double checked the laptop bag, making sure that the hidden compartments were living up to their name. “Come in!” she shouted at the tap on her office door, annoyed at the interruption.

“And here I was worried you wouldn’t feel comfortable shouting at me” Kate stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. “If you don’t want to go we can scrap the op, the aliens have been down there for just under two thousand years so far and we can find a way to make them disappear from the lab”

“Sorry ma’am” Osgood blushed. “I’m fine” she assured her boss and finished closing up the bag. 

“Os” Kate leaned against the filing cabinet “Tell me what’s wrong, switching the photographs in the fake passports is an inconvenience at worst”

“You’ll think I’m being ridiculous” Osgood bit her lower lip. 

“Tell me anyway” Kate said quietly.

“Have you spoken to Munroe yet?” Osgood asked instead of answering her.

“He’s in my pile of messages I need to return, why?” Kate wondered what their newly created in-house costume department could have to do with Osgood’s concerning behaviour.

“Clearly the backgrounds were created by someone who has watched The Devil Wears Prada one too many times” Osgood slumped into her chair, dropping her glasses on the desk as she rubbed her hands across her face. “Apparently Jane Smith loves her power suits and designer outfits while Carol Brown is happiest in jeans and converse”

Kate scowled and blew out a breath. “I don’t own converse” she stated flatly, as if that was their biggest problem.

“And I have loads of heels in my wardrobe?” she asked before realising that it was perhaps a little snippier than she really had meant it to sound. “Sorry, I hate undercover work at the best of times and this is going to be much worse than usual” She finally looked up at Kate “if it was someone else on the team would you let them get away with postponing because of this?” 

“I think Josh or Sam would object to wearing heels almost as much as you” Kate smiled slowly. “But I take your point, I can’t object to being forced to wear jeans and keep my head down for a few days and I wouldn’t let anyone else out of bossing me around”

“I’ll go home and pack some underwear and night stuff for both of us” Osgood sighed, pushing herself up from her chair. “And I’ll find a couple of pairs of gardening jeans and sweaters for you”

“I’ll have a word with Munroe” Kate nodded and opened the office door. “I’ll pop over and introduce myself to the new team”

**********************************************

“Hello, can I help you?” a young woman asked as she looked up to see who had walked into the small closet they laughingly called their department. “Oh hi, you’re Osgood” she stood up and held out her hand. “I recognise you from your picture”

“You really don’t” Kate shook her hand and smiled at the young woman. “I’m Kate Stewart” she waited for the confused look to settle in properly. “And you can see our problem” she looked around the tiny space.

“I am so sorry, I did the work last night since it was a rush job” she admitted and ran her hand through her hair.

“No real harm done, I didn’t catch your name?” Kate managed to find a surface to lean against that wasn’t covered in blank forms and piles of paper.

“Lianne Randall” she swallowed. “Please tell me I won’t get the firing squad for this?”

“We usually reserve that for mistakes during your second month in post” Kate smiled, she’d been told on more than one occasion that her dry wit would often be missed by people who were genuinely scared of her. “I just dropped by to say that the passports and driving licences were very well done, particularly in such a short space of time”

“I worked at the DVLA for a while” Lianne wasn’t sure what to do with her hands, deciding eventually to clasp them behind her back to stop the nervous fluttering. “Do you need me to make them again for you and Ms Osgood?”

“No time I’m afraid, and it’s just Osgood” Kate looked around the small office again. “Is this your office?” she finally gave in to her curiosity.

“Yes, well it’s mine and Simon’s but he’s gone to get your cosplay sorted out” Lianne bit her lip, why on earth had she said that out loud!

“Ah, Munroe of that ilk” Kate nodded, not understanding what Lianne had said but recognising the name of the other new employee. “So you share this space which is barely big enough to swing a cat?”

“We manage, luckily we hit it off on our first day” Lianne didn’t want to moan about how they’d both struggled to get the basics done since they’d been forced to share everything from one filing cabinet to a kettle.

“Still, let me have a word and get you some more space” Kate glanced at her watch. “Could you ask Mr Munroe to come and find me when he gets back?” she waited for the nervous nod of agreement. “Oh and for future reference, for both of you, Osgood likes converse and I prefer something a little more flamboyant” she looked down at her leopard print low heels, rocking back and forward a couple of times before looking back up.

“I’ll make sure he gets the memo” Lianne was smiling now, the shoes convincing her that this woman wasn’t the gun-toting tyrant that she’d been warned about.


	3. Chapter 3

“You’re looking very dapper” Kate dropped two bags into the boot before leaning against the car and looking up at the bright blue sky. 

“You’re looking very different” Josh took his peaked hat off and unbuttoned his dark suit jacket. “We need to leave soon” he glanced around to find his other passenger. “Is Os……” he trailed off as he watched his other passenger walk towards them. “Osgood?” he asked, despite the little wave she gave him which was perfectly her.

“Do I look OK?” Osgood fiddled with her scarf and looked towards Kate. She wasn’t convinced she could pull off the wide-legged trousers and fitted blouse with the scarf artfully draped across one shoulder.

“You look incredible” Josh blurted out before realising who he was standing next to. “After you, ma’am” he held the door open and waited until Osgood was seated before handing her the seatbelt and closing the door softly. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll get it myself” Kate said as she walked around the car and he made no move to open the door on her side. 

“Sorry ma’am” Josh gave himself a shake before placing his hat on the front passenger seat and settling himself. 

“We need to stop by the house first” Osgood ran her hands through her hair, she wasn’t used to having it down at work. “Apparently I’ll blow the entire operation if I wear my glasses so I need to pick up my contacts”

“What’s wrong with your glasses?” Kate asked as Josh finally stopped staring at the brunette in his rear view mirror and headed into the mid-morning traffic. “You look lovely, by the way” she rested her hand on Osgood’s knee and squeezed gently.

“According to Simon they are hideously unfashionable and completely out of character” Osgood frowned “I explained I could see out of them and I’d had the same frames for ages, he tutted and muttered something I’m glad I didn’t hear”

“Do I need to shoot him or have you already taken care of his punishment?” Kate smiled, knowing that Osgood wasn’t really offended but that the stress of taking on a persona so different from her normal self was making her short tempered.

“I gave him one of my Lethbridge-Stewart inspired glares” Osgood patted Kate’s hand and sat back. “I’m fairly sure that the next undercover assignment we’re on will involve me wearing lots of question marks and bow ties” she smiled.

After they’d stopped to allow Osgood to collect her contacts the car sped towards Gatwick Airport. “Everything you need will be waiting in your hotel room” Josh explained as they pulled into the drop off zone. “Including the items you requested, ma’am” he opened Osgood’s door first, holding her hand as she tried to exit the car daintily. Quickly running round the car he also opened Kate’s door and winked at her as she sighed. “Let me get your bags” he opened the boot and handed them one each.

“Let me” Kate said quietly as Osgood moved to take her own bag. She didn’t make eye contact with Osgood, waiting for Josh to bring over a luggage trolley before dropping the bags onto it and retrieving the messenger bag from the boot as well. “I have the travel documents here Ms Smith” she said in a slightly louder voice, catching Josh’s quiet cough to remind Osgood that she was the one Kate was talking to.

“Fine, let’s get going” Osgood straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath and strode towards the entrance without a backward glance.

Kate and Josh watched her walk away from them before staring at each other. “She fakes the swagger quite well” he murmured as he touched the peak of his hat. “Ma’am have a good trip” he said in a louder voice, surprisingly convincing as a sycophantic chauffeur. 

Osgood stopped inside the doors, they’d already checked in online but needed to drop their checked baggage somewhere. “Don’t dawdle” she blinked as Kate kept her eyes on the bags in front of her and nodded, mumbling an apology. “Come along, it’s this way” Osgood walked confidently towards the British Airways desks.

*********************************

“How do you manage to walk, never mind run, in these things” Osgood muttered as she sat in the departures lounge. 

“I usually only run if I’m being chased by something trying to kill me so it’s an added motivation” Kate sat next to her, thumbing through a tourist guide to the area south of Naples where they were going to be staying. “Besides, these are just as uncomfortable” she sighed and stretched out her legs.

“I always liked converse but I didn’t think they were sexy until you wear them” Osgood flipped impatiently across her tablet screen, pretending to be looking for something. “And I’d forgotten how gorgeous you look in tight jeans” she said through gritted teeth before a family came to sit next to them. “Carol, how many more times do I have to remind you that I must have my bottled water chilled?” she said in a louder voice.

“Sorry Ms Smith” Kate swallowed, Osgood using that tone of voice was a newly discovered trigger for her body to want to be somewhere other than a public airport lounge. “I’ll get you another one” she walked quickly towards the bar and asked for a chilled water, glancing back and rolling her eyes when the barman asked if there was anything else he could get her. “A new boss would be nice” she thanked him for the water and walked briskly back to their comfortable chairs. “Can I get you anything else ma’am?” 

“Stop fussing” Osgood waved her into the chair opposite her and waited for Kate to slump in the chair before mouthing sorry at her over her glass.

****************************************

The flight had been tedious and boring, Kate sighed as she realised that she’d become used to the UNIT jet being at her beck and call. While she waited at baggage reclaim she figured out that it wasn’t the journey that was annoying her so much as having to navigate through an airport without armed security around her. “Finally” she groaned as their bags slowly slinked around the conveyor. “Move” she growled as a large American tourist stood in front of her. 

Osgood watched from her seat at the side of the baggage hall as Kate obviously suggested where the large man wearing checkered shorts could stick his golf bag. Hiding a grin behind her hand she pretended to yawn before getting up and walking towards the scene that was slowly gathering attention from other passengers.

“Carol!” she shouted as Kate put her hands on her hips clearly about to unload a lot of other suggestions on the idiot who was choosing to argue with her. “I don’t pay you to spend time with cretinous colonials, can we please get out of here?”

The sudden silence was broken only by the squeak from the baggage conveyor. Kate swallowed and turned slowly to meet Osgood’s gaze. “Of course Ms Smith, I’m sorry” she grabbed their bags and turned the trolley to follow Osgood, barely missing the shins of the stunned American as he watched them leave. “You’re starting to enjoy this” Kate pretended to lean down to resettle one of their bags on the trolley and glanced up just in time to catch Osgood’s slight smile.

Osgood settled in the taxi and waited for Kate to sort out where they were going. “I have to call the office, does the driver know where we’re going?” she waited for Kate’s nod before dialling the Tower. “Josh, can you let LA know that I’ll be late in filing my copy for the next edition?” she closed her eyes, concentrating on the information Josh was giving her in response to her coded message.

They arrived at the hotel thirty minutes later, relatively unscathed despite the kind of driving that would have made the Colonel uncomfortable. Osgood gazed at the gifts available in the hotel gift shop as Kate checked them in. “Our suite is ready for us” Kate let the porter take their luggage, holding onto her messenger bag. They all stood in the small lift, each staring in a different direction as the lift slowly creaked towards the top floor. “It’s this way” Kate said quietly as they turned left out of the lift. “Thank you” she slipped a ten euro note to the porter as he left the room. 

Osgood looked around the room, taking in the beautiful furniture and magnificent view across red tiled rooftops. “Josh said it’s behind the bath panel” she kicked the uncomfortable shoes off and draped her jacket and scarf over a chair. “I’m never going to be able to get the scarf to look that good again” she moaned and stretched her back before following Kate into the bathroom.

Kate swiped her thumb over the hidden scanner in the bottom of the messenger bag and the small compartment clicked open. Handing Osgood the container with their earbuds she pulled out the mini tool set. “Can you hold this?” she handed Osgood the small fabric roll and carefully unscrewed the bath panel with the multitool. She eased the panel aside slowly, giving her just enough space to reach in and remove the cloth bound packages. “You unwrap what Santa left for us and I’ll put this back together” she winked at Osgood and pushed the panel back into place.

“Kate?” Osgood asked a minute later, waiting for the blonde to come out of the bathroom before saying anything else. When Kate stood beside her she pointed at the handgun and ammunition clips that were lying on the bed “Did you know the Colonel would leave this for you?”

“I asked him to arrange it” Kate carefully picked up the gun and checked that it wasn’t loaded and that the safety was on. She moved the clips and gun to the table before returning to the other items they’d been left. “Did he manage to sort everything else out?”

Osgood sorted through the scanners and communications devices that had been wrapped in oil cloth. “I think we have everything I asked for” she stared at Kate for a few seconds. “I thought this was just basic recon?”

“It is” Kate finally noticed that Osgood wasn’t playing with the toys that her team had left for her. “Os?”

“Why do you need a gun?” Osgood went to clean her glasses before remembering that she wasn’t wearing them. 

“We’re working and I have to be able to protect both of us should something happen” Kate knew that her girlfriend didn’t like her being armed. “I’m sorry, I should have said”

“No, you don’t need to apologise” Osgood took a deep breath. “I’m going to unpack, Simon gave me dire warnings of what would happen if some of this stuff got creased” she lifted her bag and started hanging up blouses and suits.

Kate cocked her head to the side, watching Osgood take great care of the clothing. “I’ll phone down and book a table for dinner then perhaps we could make more fun use of that bath?” she offered hopefully.

Osgood smiled at Kate and continued to hang up clothes for both of them. Idly she wondered if it was possible to crease jeans that were like a second skin when the blonde wore them. Getting to the bottom of Kate’s bag she pulled out a bulky grey hoodie. “What on earth?” she asked, turning round to find Kate watching her. “Did you pack this?” she asked.

“I did” Kate grinned “According to Mr Munroe I’m going to look very urban when I wear it” she laughed along with Osgood. “Oh there should be a….” Kate moved to rummage in the bottom of the bag and finally pulled her hand out “Hah, he said I needed one of these as well”

Osgood stared in disbelief at the Arsenal baseball cap in Kate’s hand. “You are going to wear that?” she pointed between the blonde and the hat.

“It’s part of my disguise” Kate stepped in front of the mirror and pushed her hair back before sliding the hat on, settling it a few times before she was satisfied. “See, I don’t look anything like the head of a global covert organisation”

Osgood pulled her into her arms, throwing the hat onto the bed and kissing her properly for the first time since they’d left the house that morning. “Can we get room service for dinner?” she mumbled between kisses and groaned when Kate took a step back and shook her head. 

“I’m afraid you need to channel your inner Meryl Streep in front of witnesses” she leaned in for another kiss. “But we do have a couple of hours before we need to head down” Kate flashed her eyebrows and lifted her hand to slide it through the brunette’s hair. “I love it when you wear your hair down” she sighed.

***************************************

Osgood put the finishing touches to her light makeup, sighing as she stared at herself in the large mirror above the dressing table. She could see Kate sitting on the end of her bed to tie her shoelaces and propped her chin in her hand as the blonde stood to make sure her shirt was tucked in properly. “I know I was annoyed about the mixup but I think I should be thanking Munroe and Randall” she smiled as the blonde looked up at her.

“You make them sound like a double-act at the end of the pier” Kate winked and walked over to rest her hands on Osgood’s shoulders. “Why the change of heart?” she met the brunette’s eyes in the mirror.

“Because you hardly ever wear casual clothes at work and I’d forgotten how you can make anything look fabulous” Osgood turned in her seat, waiting for Kate to take a step back before standing in front of her. “And I can’t think of any other way we’d have found out your very enjoyable reaction to me ordering you about in airports” she laughed at Kate’s blush.

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” Kate rested her head on Osgood’s shoulder. She hadn’t meant to admit the effect Osgood’s tone of voice had on her earlier in the day, she didn’t want to make the younger woman any more self-conscious than she already was. However, when Osgood kissed her slowly before murmuring exactly what she wanted to do to her she had lost all sense of propriety. Osgood had whispered one phrase ‘tell me what you want’ in her ear and suddenly she was doing exactly that. “If you keep that up we’ll never get out of this room” Kate warned and took a step back from her girlfriend.

“So I have to pretend to be writing a review of this place so that we can persuade them to give us a special guided tour of the catacombs?” Osgood checked her handbag contained the relevant scanners and infrared cameras. 

“If you can ham up being mean to me I should be able to tell the manager’s girlfriend my sob story and get it scheduled for the morning” Kate confirmed. “Assuming I don’t just throw myself on you before I get that far”

“You can behave for a few hours” Osgood shook her head. “You’ll get your reward later”

*****************************************

“Signorina Smith” a small, dark-haired man took Osgood’s hand in his own and bent over it. “Welcome to the Hotel Rose”

Kate hovered in the background, trying to remain invisible as she scanned the surrounding area until she found the reception desk. “Ms Smith, I’ll sort out the information you wanted before dinner” she murmured and waited for Osgood’s dismissive wave of her hand to move towards the black-haired receptionist. “Hi” she smiled and glanced over her shoulder.

“Signora Brown” the young girl glanced up from her monitor. “How may I help you?” her perfect English was only slightly accented. “Was your suite to your liking?”

“It’s lovely, thank you” Kate opened a notebook she’d been carrying and flipped open to a page with her scrawled writing across it. “I need your help” she looked up again, biting her lip and nervously fiddling with her pen. “I was supposed to organise a private tour of the catacombs and I got caught up with a clothing emergency and then there was a thing with the new car…..” she took a breath and looked beseechingly at the bewildered looking young woman. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter, not important” she waved her hand and started again. “So I really need your help to get that tour sorted out this evening or in the morning before we leave for the airport”

The young woman looked worried “I am so sorry Signora but they are closed for the season” 

“I appreciate that the general public can’t see them” she paused and looked over her shoulder at Osgood as the young woman forcefully removed her hand from the ministrations of the overzealous manager. “But I’m hoping you can make an allowance for Ms Smith, she has to file her copy by the end of the week and we’re flying to Paris tomorrow afternoon”

“I don’t think…” the receptionist started, only for Kate to interrupt her.

“You see I really love your hotel, and I’d hate for it to get dropped from the review for the American magazine” she left the opportunities of a good review for Americans to the imagination of the young girl. “And, well to be honest, after last week I think this might be the final straw....” Kate looked over her shoulder again. “She told me that one more mistake would get me a one-way ticket home”

Osgood glanced over at Kate and saw her watching her interaction with the manager. The slightly raised eyebrow from the blonde was all she needed and she took a deep breath. “Look, can we just get on with it, I’ve got a review of the restaurant to write after dinner and it’s been a long day” she almost felt sorry for the wince that the manager gave but his obsequiousness was grating on her nerves.

Kate turned back to catch the receptionist watching their interaction as well and she shrugged apologetically. “She’s a nightmare to work for but a job’s a job and I really do like your hotel so perhaps we can help each other out?”

The receptionist glanced at the manager as he led Osgood towards the restaurant before turning back to the older blonde woman. “Leave it with me, you’ll make sure we get a good review?”

“I promise” Kate smiled and threw her notebook and pen back in her bag. “Leave the details in our suite, I’d better get in there to keep her happy”

*******************************************

Osgood closed the door behind Kate and leaned against the back of it, kicking her shoes off and groaning. “Now I remember why I don’t wear contacts” she managed to stop herself rubbing her eyes, moving towards the bathroom instead.

Kate picked up the folded piece of paper that had been pushed under the door before setting up both of their laptops at the small table in front of the window. A quiet knock at the door had her reaching into her bag for the gun, automatically checking it was loaded as she waved Osgood back into the bathroom. “Just coming” she shouted as she slowly moved around the walls to reach the door by a circuitous route. Peering through the spyhole she saw the manager and tucked the gun into the back of her jeans before opening the door slightly “Can I help you?” she asked quietly, trying to listen for any other movement in the hallway.

“Compliments of the hotel” he bowed and handed over an ice bucket and two crystal glasses.

Kate paused briefly before opening the door a little wider and taking the chilled wine and glasses from him. “Thank you” she quirked a smile and closed the door as he left. Making sure the chain was back on the door before she removed the gun and checked it was safe. “It’s OK, you can come out” she said a little louder and watched as Osgood peered around the bathroom door. “Clearly he is very keen that you write a decent review” she lifted the ice bucket and glasses and relocated them beside the laptops.

“I’ll do that while you check your emails” Osgood sighed and finished undressing before putting on her pyjamas and sitting at the table. “What?” she asked as Kate watched her in confusion. “Munroe didn’t insist on designer nightwear” she looked down at her old pyjamas to see what Kate was worried about.

“You’re actually going to write a review?” Kate shook her head and waited for her emails to appear. “You do know it’s just a cover and we’ll be long gone before they realise?”

“Of course, but the hotel is nice and the food was lovely so I thought it was the least we could do…..considering” Osgood shrugged before going back to the bathroom. “Are you pouring that wine or not?” she asked in a louder voice and smiled as Kate huffed out a laugh at the question. “Thanks” she sipped from her glass before settling again and cracking the knuckles on her right hand.

“I really hate it when you do that” Kate sighed and concentrated on her emails as Osgood started to type. Thirty minutes later Kate had replied to the urgent emails she’d received and decided that she could leave the rest for the next day. “You nearly done?” she asked as she pushed back from the table, crossing her legs and finishing the wine in her glass.

Osgood finished reading a reply she’d received before looking up at Kate “Report back from the team, looks like the forensic lab has the examination of the remains scheduled for Friday morning”

“Damn” Kate moved to stand behind Osgood and peer over her shoulder. “Are we sure nobody has any suspicions that they’re not human?”

“Doesn’t look like it, to be fair we only spotted it because we knew what to look for” Osgood nodded, although she didn't look too convinced.

"I meant to say, well done on the new algorithm, it seems to have picked up quite a lot more chatter than the last one" Kate returned to her own chair. “At this rate we’ll hardly be at home if we need to chase down every alien skeleton and artefact”

"Perhaps we should have an early night, we have an early start in the morning and the tour of the catacombs should give us enough information to decide what needs to be done next” Osgood closed her laptop and watched Kate as she changed for bed.

Ten minutes later they were settling down in the bed nearest the window, watching the moon as it appeared in the bedroom window. “I’m glad you didn’t bring Sam instead of me” Osgood said. 

“You’re a better snuggler” Kate whispered and tightened her hold as Osgood huffed in reply. “I’m kidding”

“Maybe we could come back here again, as ourselves” Osgood felt Kate’s hum of agreement as her girlfriend drifted off to sleep. She watched the small lights of planes as they tracked across the sky, the moon dominating her field of vision before she fell asleep a few minutes later.


	4. Chapter 4

The young man carefully explained that they were about to enter yet another ancient burial chamber and the oldest remains they had found so far. Kate barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes, she had spotted at least four factual errors in his spiel so far and doubted that he’d studied archeology any further than the second Indiana Jones movie. Glancing to her side she saw Osgood frowning, she was obviously annoyed as well. “Perhaps we should move into the next section” Kate said quietly, if he got the dates wrong one more time she wouldn’t be able to stop Osgood from making him watch an entire series of Mary Beard documentaries.

“Si Signora” he bowed and walked through the low archway into the largest chamber they’d seen so far. 

Osgood glanced around, they had seen similar ‘gentrification’ of the remains in the last two chambers. “Is this the deepest we can go?” she asked suddenly, catching the young man by surprise. At his look of incomprehension she let a little of her impatience sneak out into her tone of voice “American tourists can see this kind of fake dead body at any Las Vegas casino” she disdainfully flicked a finger over the artfully draped (and too clean) sheet hanging from one of the small alcoves.

“Signorina, these are not fake!” he was outraged that she would suggest such a thing. When she merely raised an eyebrow and maintained eye contact he swallowed nervously. “There is a lower level that has recently been opened” he admitted.

“Excellent, let’s go” Osgood rummaged in her bag for a camera, handing it to Kate “Make yourself useful Carol, get some atmospheric shots here then follow us down”

Kate nodded and waited for them to move away a little before checking the settings on the camera. It looked like a standard digital camera but it was currently set for imaging in the ultraviolet spectrum, allowing her to take very high resolution photographs of the remains she could see without disturbing too much. She took a panoramic shot of the chamber before sliding the camera into the front pocket of her hoodie. Taking the opportunity she checked that her gun was still sitting snuggly against her waist and hidden by the fleece before following the sound of Osgood’s voice to the stairs that led down.

Osgood switched on the torch she’d been given by the nervous young man. “Don’t worry, we’re not planning on stealing any bodies” she reassured him, although it seemed to have the opposite effect. Looking up she saw Kate enter the chamber and waited until she’d switched her own torch on. “I’m going to have a look around, soak in the atmosphere before I write the review later” she said, knowing that Kate would take the hint.

“So, Marco” Kate coughed to get his attention “You were going to tell me about the Museum” she stood in front of him, effectively blocking his view of Osgood. She listened to his enthusiastic explanation of what was contained in the Herculanense Museum and decided that Osgood’s suggestion to return one day as genuine tourists was a good idea. Ignoring the fact that he was probably only getting 50% of his ‘facts’ correct, based on the evidence of his earlier explanation of the catacombs, she was nevertheless sorry not to have time to visit on this trip.

Osgood ran the scanner across the most recently disturbed remains and nodded as it confirmed her initial suspicions. “Carol” she said quietly, ready to get out of the damp atmosphere. “I think we’ve seen everything we need”

Kate looked over her shoulder and saw Osgood move towards the stairs. She had heard a weariness in her tone and worried that the air quality was affecting her more than they’d anticipated. “Of course ma’am” she murmured and followed her upstairs, not bothering to check whether Marco was following them or not. When they exited the first chamber they’d entered she gently touched Osgood’s arm to stop her “Are you OK?” she asked quietly, taking the chance while Marco locked the gates behind them.

“I’ll be fine” Osgood nodded and glanced nervously over Kate’s shoulder. “Can you organise a car, we need to head to the airport in thirty minutes” she said in a louder voice as Marco joined them.

“Of course” Kate nodded and stuffed her hands in the pocket of her hoodie to stop herself from reaching out to hug the pale younger woman. “Do we have time for a coffee before we go?” she suggested and asked Marco to get them a tray while they waited in the lounge. “So what’s the verdict?” she asked when they were alone in the large room next to the hotel entrance. 

“Definitely something for us” Osgood nodded. 

“OK” Kate frowned. “We’ll need to excavate the rest of the remains from the chamber and recover what’s been sent to the lab” she nibbled on her lower lip and nodded in thanks as the coffee was placed between them.

“Do you think the Colonel has managed to get local help?” Osgood asked before taking a hit from her inhaler.

“Are you sure you’re OK?” Kate asked “You still look a bit pale”

“So long as we don’t need to run anywhere I’ll be fine” Osgood smiled gently at her. “What’s next?” she asked after Kate didn’t continue.

“I’ll contact Colonel Shindi from the car and we can meet up with the local teams” Kate glanced at her watch. 

**************************

Osgood had started to feel a little better by the time they arrived at the airport. The driver carefully placed their bags on a trolley before wishing them a safe journey. “Where are we going?” she quietly asked Kate as they stood in front of the busy terminal building. 

Kate looked around before spotting what she was looking for “This way I think” she pushed the trolley to the end of the drop-off zone and found a quiet bench for them while she checked her messages. “I don’t really want to explain my firearm if we actually have to try going through security” she muttered to herself.

Osgood looked around, watching people hurrying from cars with the single-minded determination of business travellers who knew exactly what they were doing. They were occasionally waylaid by tourists who wandered in a seemingly random pattern towards check-in desks, information points or television screens showing departures and arrivals. An elderly couple headed in their direction, obviously eyeing the remaining space on the bench as a welcome respite. She smiled and gestured that the space was free before returning her attention to the blonde. “I’m sorry” she whispered before clearing her throat and raising her voice. “What do you mean the flight is cancelled?” she demanded.

Kate looked up in confusion before seeing the elderly woman sitting on the other side of the brunette. “I…...eh” she hesitated before glancing at the message which pinged onto her phone. “I’ve managed to get us booked on the first flight in the morning”

“You expect me to sleep on this bench?” Osgood asked indignantly and heard the grey-haired man ask his wife a question in a rapid fire Slavic language. Swiping across her phone screen impatiently she opened the translation app that she’d developed, hoping to trial it in the field for the first time. Remembering the role she was playing she looked back up at Kate, “Well?”

“I have a reservation for a suite at the hotel at the edge of the airport” Kate could only imagine how quickly the team in London were having to work to get all of this arranged at such short notice. She made a mental note to buy a round at their next night out to thank them for their efforts. “The hotel are sending a car round for us, it should be here any minute now” she swallowed, hoping that it looked like insecurity while delivering the bad news to her boss and not her need to swallow down the feeling of desire triggered by Osgood’s change into bitch-boss character.

An SUV pulled up in front of them with the logo of the hotel on it’s door. A young woman in a tailored suit stepped out of the driver’s door and held the backdoor open for Osgood. She took the trolley from Kate and loaded their bags into the boot before making sure Kate was safely sitting beside Osgood. “Ma’am” she said when the doors were closed and as she made eye contact with Kate in the rear-view mirror. “Greyhound 1 and 2 en route” she spoke into a discreet bluetooth headset and waited for a reply before heading into the stream of traffic.

“Good to see a familiar face, Sergeant Douglas” Kate smiled and dialled the Colonel’s number. “Vikram, what’s the situation with the local support?”

****************

Two hours after they had checked into the hotel Kate opened the suite door to find Josh Carter and Sergeant Douglas standing in the hallway. “I thought you were room service” she shrugged as she looked over their shoulders before letting them in. “Go through, the gang’s all here” 

“The kitchen are sending up the food you ordered in about five minutes” the young woman relayed the message. 

“Are you moonlighting in the kitchens as well?” Kate asked with a smile. 

“I just happened to be chatting to one of the waitresses, ma’am” she heard Josh snort behind her.

“Chatting her up more like” Carter teased her. “Gabby here knows more about how this hotel runs than the manager and she only arrived yesterday”

“You’ll make Captain in no time” Kate smiled reassuringly at the young woman who was blushing. “And you’ll make Sergeant even more quickly if you keep going Mr Carter” Kate let a warning tone seep out and was pleased to see the young man stiffen his posture a little. 

Osgood pored over a series of maps and building plans spread out across the table in the middle of the room. “You should know better by now Josh” she looked over her shoulder at her friend. “You’re outnumbered, even with the Colonel in your corner” 

“Yes ma’am” Josh winked as he acknowledged the wisdom of what she said and also managed to annoy her a little at the same time. “Secure comms line is up and running, sir” he delivered the report on work being done by the other team in the suite next door. 

“Well done, now we just wait to hear from London” the Colonel sat back on the sofa. “Our transport is ready to go?” he asked of the woman.

“Yes sir, the cars are fueled and our equipment is loaded” she had assumed an at ease stance and relaxed when the Colonel waved his hand at her. “There is one thing we haven’t managed to source yet” she continued nervously, this was her first time delivering bad news when Kate was in the same room. “When we remove the remains from the catacombs and the forensics lab we don’t have anything to replace them with”

“Why do we need to replace them with anything?” the Colonel asked and looked towards Kate to see if she knew.

“We are supposed to be deep undercover” Kate leaned against the edge of a desk in one corner of the room. She’d changed into hiking boots and a long sleeved t-shirt but still looked ready to brief any world leader they came across, although she was hoping they didn’t come across any while they were still planning on quite a lot of body snatching in a foreign country. “And the coincidence of two women of our description insisting on seeing the latest excavations only 12 hours before they go missing would ring lots of alarm bells and it wouldn’t take them long to figure out who was responsible”

“We didn’t have time to ensure that we avoided CCTV either, so there’ll be pictures of us that can be matched to our service records” Osgood reminded them. “Even if we were both acting out of character, it won’t be difficult to get from missing remains to UNIT”

“Did we get anywhere with the local authorities?” Kate asked the room in general, although she knew that Osgood hadn’t been involved in the attempts to get approval for their mission from the local government.

“Nothing so far” Shindi sighed and stood up. “I’m going to try contacting the Mayor’s office again, Carter with me” both men left the room.

“None of which gets us any closer to finding replacement bones before tomorrow morning” Kate sighed and rubbed her hands over her face. She heard a knock on the room door and glanced up at the remaining soldier. “Could you get that please?”

“Ma’am” Douglas nodded and unclipped her shoulder holster, closing over the internal room door before glancing through the peephole in the door. “Grazie carina” she murmured as a dark-haired young woman wheeled in a trolley containing food and flasks of coffee. She winked at the waitress and passed her a ten euro note. She secured the door and carefully rolled the trolley into the room, pausing as Kate holstered her own weapon. “Ma’am?” she asked, concerned that she’d missed something that had caused the boss to draw her weapon.

“Being over-cautious” Kate assured her and helped the young woman to lay out the food and coffee flasks on a small table between two sofas. “Help yourself” she waved to the plates. “Os, come and get something to eat”

“In a minute” Osgood was reading down a list of local archeological digs in the surrounding countryside.

“That wasn’t a suggestion” Kate crossed her arms, she was still worried from the brunette’s reaction to the damp atmosphere earlier in the day. “Osgood!” she said more forcefully, not really wanting to have an argument while the other woman was in the room.

Osgood looked up in surprise, she knew that tone of voice. “Ma’am?” she asked and pushed her glasses back up her nose.

“Take a break and get something to eat” Kate nodded towards the plates of sandwiches and small pastries. “Please Os” she softened her tone a little.

Osgood looked briefly towards the soldier before nodding and pouring out coffee for both her and Kate. “You as well” she said softly as she handed the blonde her cup.

Douglas walked towards the window, her coffee cup in hand and tried to pretend she was engrossed in the view. She could hear quiet conversation behind her but concentrated on not listening in, blowing over the top of her cup and watching planes circling the airport. It was only when Osgood walked to stand beside her that she shook off her daydreaming. “Ma’am…..sorry, Osgood?” she smiled, she’d been told often enough about the scientist’s aversion to the honorific.

“Did you have something to eat?” Osgood looked over her shoulder. “She was being grumpy with me, not you” she said quietly.

“Oh I know” Douglas smirked. “I just didn’t want to get in the middle of a domestic” she whispered and was relieved when Osgood grinned and nodded in agreement. “Are you feeling better?” she checked.

“Oh don’t you start as well” Osgood bumped her shoulder good naturedly against the younger woman. “I’m fine, just felt a little off because of the damp air and…..well…” she looked over towards Kate to make sure the blonde was still on the phone “...the last time we were in a cave together it didn’t work out too well so I wasn’t overjoyed to be underground again”

Douglas looked confused “Ah, the Greek caves that exploded?” she checked and saw Osgood frown in memory.

“That was a long day even before the explosion” the brunette mumbled and turned back towards Kate as her name was called. “Yes ma’am?”

“I don’t think Sergeant Douglas is fooled” Kate rolled her eyes. “Let’s just try to get back to normal, shall we” she didn’t wait for a response from either woman. “I’ve just spoken to the Ministry and we’re definitely not here in an official capacity so how do we find old bodies without being arrested as grave robbers?”

“I had a thought” Osgood returned to the table with the maps spread out on top. “Remember we were talking about the site where our teams are excavating the mosaic floor with the alien images on it?” Kate nodded and waved for her to get on with it. “Right, sorry, it’s just that there were some ancient remains that had to be removed to give them access to the entire floor and the plan was to return them to the same site when they were done”

“Won’t people notice when the skeletons disappear from that site?” Douglas asked.

“Well they probably would have if they’d known they were there in the first place” Osgood shrugged. “As soon as the edge of the mosaic was discovered and identified as something we needed to take an interest in the entire site was locked down”

“So the only people who’ve had access have been our teams?” Kate tapped her mobile phone against her chin. “That might work” she agreed.

“I’ve assumed that they have them packed to protect them so it would only be a matter of putting them on the back of a big enough truck and getting them here before we move in” Osgood looked a little unsure again. “Which is a big assumption, for all I know they could have sent them to a different site for storage”

“Leave that with me” Douglas said. “Ma’am, I’ll liaise with the team and sort out the transport, if that’s alright?”

“Carry on Sergeant” Kate waved her hand and heard the snort of amusement from Osgood. “Sorry, Gabby” she apologised.

“Nothing to apologise for ma’am, my parents loved those movies” the Sergeant assured her then realised what she’d said. “I don’t mean to suggest…..”

“It’s fine, really” Kate smiled at her. “Let’s just get on with the plan in hand” She watched the young woman leave the suite before turning to Osgood. “You’re awful” she pointed a finger at the laughing brunette and was delighted to see her looking a bit pink in the face, it was a definite improvement over the greyish colour she had shown earlier. “She seems to be settling in well” she continued as Osgood pulled up information from the forensics lab.

“I like her” Osgood nodded. “The lab has some fairly rudimentary security measures, nothing we can’t get around without anyone noticing” she pointed at her laptop and looked up when Kate hadn’t responded. “Everything alright?” she asked.

“Yes, of course, I’m just being silly” Kate shook her head and leaned over Osgood’s shoulder.

***********************************

Shindi and Carter were being brought up to speed on the plan when Douglas returned to the room. “Sorry to interrupt, sir” she addressed Shindi before turning to Osgood. “The remains are definitely human and already on their way down to us” 

“Is anyone else feeling a little…..I don’t know, it just feels wrong” Carter looked uneasy.

“Explain” Kate ran through the plan for the break-ins in an effort to spot what she’d missed and Josh had picked up.

“Well we’re really talking about grave robbing, twice, and relocating human remains like some kind of bait and switch caper from a heist movie” he hunched his shoulders and looked around the room to see if anyone else was getting the same bad vibes as he was.

“As someone who’s been caught by a dead relative at 15,000 feet I think I’m mostly OK with the minor relocations we’re talking about here” Kate said quietly and she was sure she could have heard a pin drop for a few seconds. “Desecration of graves isn’t something we take lightly but it rather pales into insignificance after what we’ve been through in recent years”

“We’ll be as respectful as we can Josh” Osgood said quietly, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “It’ll take the truck another two hours to rendezvous with the teams, perhaps we should all get some rest”

“Good idea, we’re going to be pulling an all-nighter I’m afraid but we should be able to head home tomorrow” Kate stretched upwards before dropping her arms back down. “Thank your teams for all of their hard work today”

“Ma’am” Shindi nodded and the three soldiers left the suite.

Kate stretched again, yawning as well for good measure. “I think a shower will help to wake me up” she sighed and walked over towards Osgood. “Are you alright love?”

“Mmmm” Osgood kept staring at the floor plans laid out on the table. She knew Kate would worry and wasn’t surprised to feel her hands settle on her shoulders. Gentle movements of the long fingers soon had her blowing out a breath and letting her head fall back. “Ugh you’re so good at that”

“I’d hope so, after all this time” Kate smiled. “Are you OK?”

“I should be asking you that” Osgood opened her eyes and stared up at the blonde. “I’m sorry” she rested her hands over Kate’s, stopping the gentle circling. “I hate to be reminded of that day”

“Sometimes I don’t mind” Kate whispered, pulling another chair next to Osgood’s and lowering herself into it, making eye contact. “One last memory of Dad and all that” she gazed off into the distance “To be honest getting blown out of an aircraft wasn’t the worst thing about that day”

Osgood slowly slid their fingers together, clearly failing in stopping tears from rolling slowly down her face. “When I read the reports afterwards I couldn’t believe how close I came to losing you”

“Few broken bones and shock, I was up and around in a few days” Kate reminds her.

“And I was gone” Osgood wiped the back of her hand across her cheeks. “I’ll never forgive myself for not telling you I was still alive”  
“We weren’t a couple then” Kate reminded her and caressed the brunette’s cheeks, catching tears. “You were saving the planet, billions of people are alive today because of you” she reminded her.

“I was alone and scared and every single night I was away I scrolled to your number and stared at the call button on my phone” Osgood whispered as Kate gathered her in her arms.

“Hush, we’re fine now and you are my beautiful, brilliant, brave Os” Kate kept her voice low, they were as close as they could be and the chairs were becoming uncomfortable. “Let’s lie down, I want to hold you”

“I thought you wanted a shower?” Osgood hiccupped through the question.

“I want to hold the woman I love because we both need it” Kate kissed her neck and felt the tiny amount of relaxation in response. 

Osgood pushed back from the awkward position but kept hold of her girlfriend’s hand, making sure she followed her to the bed. “Everyone needs a cuddle every now and then” she said quietly. She dropped Kate’s hand to pull her sweater over her head and unbuttoned her shirt while toeing off her shoes. “Come on” she chided as Kate stood watching her undress. “My boss only gave me two hours off” she smiled as she slid under the covers.

Kate sat down on the edge of the bed, leaning over to untie her laces. “Your boss sounds like quite the tartar” she dumped her clothes on the floor beside Osgood’s and crawled under the quilt. 

“Oh I don’t know, she likes people to think she’s formidable and unbreakable but I’m pretty sure she’s a big old softy at heart” the brunette smiled around the kiss she received in reply. “I love you” she whispered and leaned in for another kiss on Kate’s hum of agreement. 

Kate slowed the kisses down until they were lying beside each other, close enough to feel each other’s breaths on their cheeks. “I was going to try to persuade you to shower with me but I’m glad you changed my mind” she sighed. Her left hand smoothed the skin between Osgood’s hip and ribs with enough pressure to avoid tickling the brunette. “This is quite comfortable but I’m looking forward to being back in our own bed tomorrow”

“Me too” Osgood wriggled a little and ended up even closer to Kate. “We should go out somewhere at the weekend”

“You don’t want to spend the weekend in bed with me?” Kate grinned while trying to sound indignant. “Hey!” she jumped at the pinch on her bum. “Actually, our cinema has a Doris Day retrospective that I meant to tell you about, we could book our sofa and snog through some classic old musicals if you fancied?”

Osgood pulled back a little and looked confused. “You like Doris Day movies?” 

“Well the comedies were well made and who could resist the Deadwood Stage?” Kate looked a little embarrassed. “We don’t have to go, maybe dinner at that nice little…..” she was interrupted by a long, slow kiss.

“I love finding out new things about you, even if they’re old things” Osgood breathed heavily when she pulled back from the kiss.

“Uh huh” Kate responded, still a little shell-shocked by the sudden attack. “Yes to the movie?


	5. Chapter 5

Sergeant Douglas carefully pulled the truck alongside the metal fence surrounding the Forensic Labs carpark. “In position Greyhound 4, ready when you are” she said quietly. “Greyhound 4, receiving loud and clear” crackled back in her earpiece and she felt the truck move slightly.

Captain Carter steadied himself on the roof of the truck, glancing around to make sure they were still clear of witnesses. “Greyhound 2, ready to move on your mark” Josh whispered and crouched at the edge of the roof overlooking the fence. It was only a twelve foot drop onto the carpark surface once he’d cleared the fence and his plastic skeleton would handle the shock of his landing with ease. “CCTV bypassed, good to go” he heard Osgood’s confident voice and flexed his knees a couple of times before jumping from the roof of the truck, over the fence and into the carpark. “Onsite, moving to the entrance” he moved swiftly towards the backdoor of the building, keeping to the shadows as much as possible.

“Once more round the block, just to make sure we don’t have any unwanted attention” Shindi ordered from the passenger seat of the truck and carefully looked around as they circled the block. “Greyhound 4, we’re approaching the loading bay gate are you ready for us?” he saw the gates opening inwards even as he asked. “In position, close them behind us” he ordered twenty seconds later as the truck turned to reverse into the loading bay. “Well done Carter” he said as his door was opened from outside. “Any resistance?”

“No sir” Carter quietly closed the door and followed the Colonel to the rear of the truck. “Just like Osgood said, nobody around and the cameras are all on standby”

Sergeant Douglas opened the rear door of the truck before going off to find the storage compartment they were looking for “Greyhound 2 confirming storage reference Oscar Delta Whisky Two Eight Niner” she waited for Osgood to agree that the storage unit contained what they were looking for and carefully pulled the drawer open. Looking around she found a trolley and slid the remains onto it, rolling it towards the door they had entered by. “This is it, ma’am” she stopped in front of Kate.

Kate carefully unzipped the black bag and checked the reference number again before carrying out a visual check to confirm that the remains were definitely alien. “Carter, bring over the first strongbox” she waited for the lead lined box to be placed on the floor beside the trolley. “Keep an eye out while we make the switch” she ordered and began removing the bones one at a time and placing them carefully in the box. Once the black bag was empty she rolled the trolley closer to the truck and began transferring the ancient human remains from the archeological dig into the black bag, making sure that everything was laid out in the correct anatomical order. Ten minutes after they had started she had Carter carry the lead lined box back to the truck. “Put this back in the same storage locker” she left the trolley with Douglas and climbed back into the truck beside Carter. “Good job” she said to him as she slipped off her latex gloves and placed them on top of the contents before sealing the storage box.

“Greyhound 3 to Greyhound 1, receiving?” Shindi locked the loading bay door and climbed into the truck, nodding for Douglas to drive them out. He heard Kate acknowledge his transmission. “We’re leaving the compound, heading to the beta site now”

Osgood switched the live feed for the CCTV footage back on and checked that the recording she’d been playing was cleared from the cache. Flexing her fingers she reached for her coffee mug before switching to a different communications channel. “Greyhound 2 to Swordfish 4, are you receiving” she waited patiently for a reply.

“Swordfish 4 to Greyhound 2, we’ll be at the rendezvous point in two hours” the surprisingly clear voice replied to Osgood.

“The team are on schedule to meet you, they’re moving to the beta site now” Osgood waited for them to confirm that they’d heard before signing off. “Greyhound 2 to Greyhound 1” she heard some static and checked the GPS tracker in Kate’s earpiece to see how close the truck was to the catacombs. 

“Everything OK?” Kate replied, she was tired and not really in the mood for codenames.

Osgood frowned, it wasn’t like Kate to ignore protocol altogether and certainly not in the middle of a mission. “Swordfish 4 on schedule ma’am” she replied and reached for her mobile phone. _“You sound weird, everything alright?”_ she messaged Kate.

_“Sorry love, tired and the truck isn’t very comfortable”_ Kate replied and glanced around the three other occupants of the back of the truck. _“I think Carter may have had a point about grave robbing”_ she admitted. The truck slowed down and turned a sharp corner. _“I’ll shake off the grumpiness once we’re home xx”_ she dropped her phone into her jacket pocket 

Osgood removed her glasses, cleaning them vigorously before getting up to check that their bags were all packed and that they would be ready to leave as soon as the mission was completed. Ten minutes later she heard Shindi confirm that they had arrived at the beta site and returned to her laptop. “Greyhound 2 to Greyhound 3, switch to infrared filters” she waited for the enhanced view to come back from the body cameras the team were wearing. “Yep, I can see the markers we left this morning, you should be able to follow the trail with the visors” she received confirmation from the team that they were switching to infrared mode and sat back. This was the hardest part of any mission, when she could only hear what was happening. After the first couple of missions she’d given up watching the camera feeds too closely, they gave her motion sickness with the delayed signal and jerky movements. One of her regular threats was to upgrade their communications to HD quality, at the very least it would look like a half decent first-person shooter game. 

“Bringing in the storage boxes now” Carter confirmed and carried one of the boxes himself while two of his colleagues carried another between them. 

“Still all clear” Douglas reported from the perimeter where she had climbed to the top of the truck and was scanning the surrounding narrow streets. They had been lucky that this particular catacomb entrance wasn’t overlooked and the hotel entrance was on the other side of the small town square. 

Kate carefully filled another box with alien remains before emptying a third box’s human remains to replace them in the partially excavated niche. “How many more?” she asked Shindi as he looked at the scanned image she had taken that morning and checked where they had already swapped out bones.

“One more ma’am, nearly done” he stepped back as the soldiers placed an empty box at his feet. “Greyhound 3 to Greyhound 2, everything still on track?” he stepped away to listen carefully through the crackle of static in his earpiece.

“The area is still quiet and the hotel alarms haven’t been tripped” Osgood confirmed and decided to pace a little, the waiting was the worst for her although it was better than being back in the damp atmosphere of the newly turned earth underground.

“Greyhound 1 to Greyhound 2, we should be finished in twenty minutes” Kate snapped off another pair of latex gloves and paused to wipe the sweat from her brow and top lip. Making sure that the remains were replaced without making it obvious what they had done was taking more time than she’d hoped but it was worth it to ensure the ruse wasn’t spotted any time soon. Reaching into her pocket she snapped on a clean pair of gloves and smirked at the wince from one of the soldiers nearby, men were wimps when it came to that sound. 

Shindi sealed the lead-lined boxes that now contained alien remains and watched as they were carried back up the corridor. Looking around he shifted his jacket and resettled the holster at his hip. After all these years of seeing world-ending danger and monsters he was embarrassed to be feeling uncomfortable in a tomb, especially as the aliens had clearly been dead for nearly two thousand years. The team had removed the last sealed box and he was left waiting with Kate and Josh as the woman carefully placed the human remains into the small indentation in front of her. He watched as her concentration was focussed entirely on the bones in her hand and where they needed to be located. Josh was watching intently, carefully moving dirt over areas where she had finished recreating limbs or the torso. Ten minutes later she blew out a deep breath and snapped off the gloves for the last time, tucking them carefully into an evidence bag in her pocket before running her hands through her hair. “Greyhound 3 to Greyhound 2, returning to the entrance” he flipped his visor back down and cleared the infrared markers with Carter as the three of them retreated back the way they had come.

Douglas had jumped down from the roof of the truck when Shind had announced that the final members of the team were on their way. Starting the truck she watched as Shindi jumped into the back with Carter and waited for Kate to settle beside her in the front seat before pulling away from the dark street. She heard the crackle of communications in her ear as Shindi kept Osgood up to date with their progress. Watching Kate out of the corner of her eye she waited until they were on a straight road before reaching over with a bottle of water. “Ma’am” she said quietly, watching as Kate opened her eyes and acknowledged the water with a nod and smile.

Kate drank half of the bottle in a few gulps to try to remove the dust from the catacombs. “Thank you” she tried to conceal a yawn and squinted at a road sign as they passed. “How long till we meet up with Swordfish 4?” she asked.

“Should be there in thirty minutes ma’am” Douglas replied, keeping her attention on the road and giving Kate some privacy as she tried to quell another yawn. 

“Greyhound 1 to Greyhound 2” Kate rolled her head and winced at the crunching noise from the protesting vertebrae in her neck. “Os?”

“Sorry ma’am” Osgood switched back to the correct channel. “I was just checking in with Swordfish 4, they are on schedule and should be at the rendezvous point in fifteen minutes”

“Fine, we’ll be there just after them” Kate yawned again. “Sorry” she apologised to Osgood and Douglas. “What time is our flight in the morning?”

“Red-eye to Paris leaving at 06:00 hours” Osgood could picture the look of disgust on her girlfriend’s face and pitied Sergeant Douglas. “The UNIT jet will meet us at Charles De Gaulle and we should be back in the office by lunchtime”

“We won’t be going to the office” Kate grumbled and turned to see Douglas trying to stifle a smile. “Something amusing Sergeant?” she asked with a raised eyebrow and waited for the young woman to glance towards her before winking and smiling.

“Play nice” Osgood said quietly, very aware that this was an open comms channel and also not able to see that Kate had been joking.

“Greyhound 3 we’re coming up on the exit for the harbour” Douglas grinned at Kate to let her know that she was giving her a strategic interruption to avoid her having to explain their interplay.

“Good news Douglas” Shindi replied. “I do hope Ms Stewart is sharing the mint imperials with you”

“Barley Sugar sir” Douglas replied smartly and slowed down to steer around the tight bends as the dirt track meandered towards the natural harbour on the coast.

Kate listened to the laughter from her team as she messaged Osgood on her phone to reassure her that she wasn’t angry with Douglas and that she wasn’t in trouble for reprimanding her girlfriend in the middle of a mission. “Greyhound 1 receiving” she said quietly and the chatter died down as they all switched to the other channel to pick up the communications. “We have half a dozen storage boxes and three escorts” she replied to another query. “They can see our headlights” she said quietly to Douglas and the young woman slowed down to make sure they didn’t miss the entrance.

It took the soldiers and naval personnel twenty minutes to load the cargo into the submarine. “We’ll fly back into London from Barcelona, should be there late tonight” Shindi glanced at his watch before looking out to the horizon. “Douglas will drop off the truck and fly back on the same flight as you”

Kate handed over her gun and wrapped her arms around herself, it was chilly on the coast just before dawn. “Good work tonight, your team did well” she watched as Carter helped direct Douglas as she turned the truck around to face back the way they had come. “Douglas seems capable” she watched as the young woman jumped down to join Carter as they walked towards them. “We should encourage that enthusiasm” she said.

“Yes ma’am” Shindi nodded “Ready Carter?” he asked and received a nod in return. “Excellent, I don’t expect to see either of you in the office until tomorrow” he said to Kate and Douglas and walked off laughing as Kate raised an eyebrow at him.

“Cheeky bugger” Kate muttered under her breath before turning to the younger woman. “Let’s get going, I could murder a coffee”

“Ma’am” Douglas replied. “Greyhound 2, we have Swordfish loaded and underway and Greyhound 1 returning to the nest”


	6. Chapter 6

“It’s been a while since I pulled an all nighter” Kate stretched as they settled in the considerably more comfortable seats on the UNIT jet. “Did you get any sleep on the flight to Paris?” she asked Sergeant Douglas.

“No ma’am, I’m fine” Douglas replied and looked up in surprise as Osgood slowly climbed the steps and dumped her messenger bag on an empty seat. “You OK?” she asked.

“I’ll be fine after about forty hours of sleep” Osgood complained before sinking into the seat facing Kate and across from Douglas. “I’m getting too old for this”

“Can I get you a drink Dr Stewart?” the steward asked.

“Large mug of coffee for me and an Ovaltine for the old lady there” Kate pointed at Osgood who glared at her and asked for water instead.

“I was wondering” Douglas waited for the drinks to be served before continuing. “What do you do with the skeletons now that we’ve avoided them becoming public knowledge?”

“We’ll confirm they are who we think they are from the initial scans and then send out a message to their planet” Osgood buckled her seatbelt as the door was closed. 

“You know already?” Douglas didn’t realise that she sounded surprised at this until she heard herself say it out loud. “But you didn’t even see them properly”

“The structure of the thoracic and cervical vertebrae are already in the database that our resident alien anatomy expert has compiled over the last few years” Osgood kept a smile from her face and didn’t dare to look at Kate.

“I haven’t met them yet” Douglas was intrigued that there was an entire area of scientific study she hadn’t even considered.

“It’s like nobody remembers I’ve got the big office for a reason these days!” Kate huffed and leaned her head back to enjoy the relative peace and quiet for the remainder of the journey. They had arrived back at the hotel with only two hours to spare before their flight was due to leave. Kate had pointed out that falling asleep at that point would have been worse than not sleeping at all and they had shared a large pot of coffee and some breakfast in their room before heading out to join the crowd of annoyed businessmen on the early morning flight to Paris. Kate hadn’t had to try very hard to return to her role as quiet and downtrodden assistant and even Osgood managing the odd imperious order hadn’t perked her up.

Douglas had blushed when she’d realised that Kate was the scientific expert that Osgood had been talking about and was relieved that Kate had closed her eyes, taking the opportunity to shake her finger at the brunette. “Sorry” Osgood said quietly, moving to sit beside the young woman. “I couldn’t resist” 

“I forgive you, I just hope she forgives me” Douglas whispered. “It has been a long couple of days” she turned to watch the sun as it appeared above the clouds. “Can I ask you something?” she glanced past Osgood to make sure that Kate was sleeping.

“You can ask” Osgood said with a small smile.

“Yesterday….the boss said something about being caught at 15,000 feet” Douglas licked her lips, aware that this probably wasn’t a favourite memory for Osgood. “What did she mean?”

“She was on Boat One when it blew up” Osgood turned to face her, swallowing down the panic she always felt when the memories of that day returned. “Code Silver was invoked and when she was blown out of the plane it was in a rapid descent”

Douglas’s eyes widened, she’d heard a lot of tales from the veteran members of the UNIT team but this was extreme even by their standards. “Did the Doctor save her?”

“Not quite, Cyberman actually” Osgood smiled as she pictured the Brigadier coming to the rescue one last time. “Some of it’s classified, sorry”

“No, that’s fine” Douglas shook her head. “Thank you for telling me even that much” she looked over Osgood’s shoulder to see Kate. “The group of us who went through our induction at the same time, the rest were all so excited to meet the Doctor, you know, but I wanted to meet the great Kate Stewart much more” she admitted.

Osgood raised her eyebrow and sat back a little. “Why?”

“Not like that” Douglas waved her hand. “I mean I can see the attraction but not really my type” she hoped that would be enough to make Osgood stop glaring at her. “It’s just the Doctor is this weird alien with cool gadgets but Kate is a human and she uses science and diplomacy to achieve the same thing he does”

Osgood smiled softly “She does have swagger on her side too” she unconsciously licked her lips when she pictured Kate working her magic on invading aliens and government ministers alike.

“I haven’t seen that yet, something to look forward to” Douglas nudged Osgood with her elbow. “Soppy bugger”

“Yep, that’s me” Osgood admitted with a grin. “So, what is your type exactly?” she decided to change the subject, although she’d happily talk about how awesome she thought Kate was for hours on end.

“Depends” the younger woman stared into the middle distance for a moment. “There was a really pretty waitress at the hotel”

“The one Josh was teasing you about?” Osgood didn’t have many friends her own age and it was nice to actually talk about normal human interactions with someone she didn’t have to feel nervous around.

“Yeah but the sous chef was also very cute” Douglas flashed her eyebrows.

“Did she succumb to your charms as well?” Osgood laughed.

“He would have if we’d stayed any longer” the younger woman enjoyed the brief moment of confusion on Osgood’s face and was relieved when it turned into a smile.

“So it’s dark haired Italian’s that’s your type?” Osgood eagerly researched this new area of interest, pushing her glasses up her nose.

Kate listened to the two women talking and laughing, relieved that Osgood seemed to be making a friend at work. At first she’d been worried that the younger, dashing soldier would pose a threat to their relationship but the doubts had faded as quickly as they’d come into shape. Her girlfriend would never break her heart like that. It also seemed that the newly promoted Sergeant was an interesting addition to their team.

Thirty minutes later they were circling to land and Kate was checking emails on her phone. “I need to go into the office” she sighed and watched Osgood’s face fall. “Sergeant can you take Osgood home please and then liaise with Swordfish 4?”

“Ma’am” Douglas nodded and unclipped her seatbelt as soon as they touched down.

Osgood watched the young woman walk towards the crew before turning to Kate. “Why can’t you come home with me?” she asked quietly.

“Something’s come up with Sam’s mission in New Zealand, I need to brief the Foreign Office and convince them I haven’t just been committing an international crime in Italy” Kate rubbed her eyes before pushing her hair back. “I can’t be bothered changing, they’ll need to put up with jeans today”

“Wear the hoodie as well” Osgood suggested before a huge yawn overtook her. “Sorry” she mumbled.

“Car’s are ready ma’am” Douglas raised her voice slightly and lifted Osgood’s messenger bag. 

“Go to bed when you get home, I’ll join you as soon as I can” Kate gave the brunette a quick hug and followed her off the jet. “Corporal you’re with me” she said, striding towards the official car and giving the driver instructions on which government department he needed to head for. 

Osgood sighed as she watched the car move off. “Let’s go” she finally turned and climbed into the Range Rover idling beside her. “I’m sorry you got babysitting duties” she rolled her head against the headrest.

“Hardly, Dr Stewart trusts me to get you home safely, I’m taking that as a compliment” Douglas turned to smile at Osgood as they stopped at traffic lights. “There’s an accident a couple of miles in front of us, you can sleep now if you want”


	7. Chapter 7

Liz flicked through a magazine as she waited in the cafe. The waitress behind the counter looked up as the door opened. “Kate” Liz waved and asked the waitress for another coffee, standing to give the blonde a hug. “You look like shit” she held her at arm’s length.

“Always a delight to see you Ms Smith” Kate rolled her eyes, secretly pleased with the huff off annoyance she got for using Liz’s maiden name. “Bacon roll please” she said as the waitress delivered her coffee. “You’re slumming it a bit, aren’t you?” Kate leaned closer, not wanting to offend the waitress as she busied herself over a hotplate.

“Old friend owns this place, best bacon rolls this side of the river” Liz reassured her. “So what have you been up to?” she settled back in her chair.

“Usual” Kate shrugged. “Had to be away for a few days and I’ve been stuck doing calls with various people in New Zealand this week so the time difference has knocked me for six” she admitted.

“How’s Osgood?” Liz asked, knowing from bitter experience that asking Kate to work fewer hours would be a pointless exercise.

“She’s fine” Kate’s gaze softened. “I asked her if she wanted to come with me but apparently something in her lab has her undivided attention”

“Now you know how I felt all those years” Liz sipped her coffee. “Make sure she gets some rest, that last cold she had was a bad one”

“How are the boys?” Kate asked, nodding at the waitress as she delivered a bacon roll to each of them. “This is good” she mumbled around her first bite before demolishing the rest in a couple of minutes.

“They are both fine, I talked to Gordy yesterday and he said he was thinking about going on holiday with Linda” Liz wiped her mouth with the napkin. “He’s talking about a beach holiday in Spain so I don’t think he’s at the romantic proposal stage yet”

“I haven’t even met his girlfriend, he can’t propose yet!” Kate protested.

“If you’re free on Sunday I could ask him to bring her along to a family brunch?” Liz suggested. 

“That would be lovely” Kate agreed and quickly sent a message to Osgood in case she forgot to tell her later. “What have you been up to lately then?” she finally realised that her ex-wife looked relaxed and happier than she’d seen her in recent years.

“Ah” Liz suddenly found the chipped formica table top to be fascinating. “Well” she licked her lips, glancing up to see Kate sitting back in her chair with legs crossed and a smirk on her face. “I’ve met someone” she blew out a breath.

“And….” Kate made the universal hand signal for ‘get on with it’ 

“She’s a lawyer too but mainly in conveyancing and probate law” Liz sighed. “We met when I was sorting out Mum’s will” she watched as Kate looked a little concerned. “She refused to go out with me, said she’d never date a client and to ask her again in three months”

“I assume you asked again?” Kate gently prodded the story along.

“I wore down her defences” Liz smiled. “But she only agreed to our first dinner exactly three months after our final meeting” she rolled her eyes. “She said I was worth waiting for” she blushed.

“Honourable and a smooth talker, I like her already” Kate placed her hand on top of Liz’s where it rested on the table. “Tell me all about her”

*********************************************************

“She is?” Osgood asked in surprise.

Kate shook her head, it was really very difficult to have a private conversation with her girlfriend when said girlfriend was lying halfway underneath a large rectangular box with wires protruding from it. “What are you doing?” she leaned down to try to see where Osgood’s head was positioned.

“The capacitor blew” Osgood shuffled around to get back out from underneath the box. “I think there was a power surge when we tried to switch it on after the last maintenance checks” she stood and wiped her hands on a cotton handkerchief. “So Liz is seeing someone?” she remembered what Kate had tried to tell her.

“Apparently she was the lawyer handling her mother’s estate but she refused to see Liz until after the business was concluded” Kate moved a pile of papers from the corner of Osgood’s workbench and perched on it. “They’ve been seeing each other for about four months and Liz would like to introduce her to the family”

“Hence the Sunday brunch” Osgood held up her phone to show Kate that she’d seen her message. “It’s not fair that her girlfriend gets months to prepare for meeting all of us and I got a few hours” she reminded Kate of their first weekend together.

“You’re Osgood, and perfect to begin with, so no need to be nervous” Kate stood and walked towards the lab door. “Not sure when I’ll get away tonight, sorry” Kate apologised.

“Bring the holo-transmitter home, Sam should still have his pop-up Kate to surprise them with” Osgood suggested.

“I overruled you calling it that” Kate reminded her before leaving to contact Sam.

*****************************************

Sam Bishop had received the message from Kate and setup the holo-transmitter an hour later. The other occupants of the room chatted amongst themselves and nobody noticed the small buzz to warn them before Kate suddenly appeared next to Sam. “Ma’am” Sam had stood up when he heard the warning and avoided looking at the soldiers who were mopping up spilled coffee at her sudden appearance.

“Lieutenant Bishop” Kate nodded at him before lifting her mug and scanning around the other occupants of the room. “Gentlemen, can we get started?” she asked mildly.

“Ms Stewart” the pompous civil servant at the end of the table shuffled his papers and prepared to take charge of the meeting.

“It’s Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart” Kate corrected him with a hint of steel, putting her coffee mug down on a table that was positioned to her right in such a way that the mug disappeared when it left her hand.

“Of course” the man swallowed nervously, it was a lot more difficult to exert authority over the woman now that she was ostensibly sitting in front of him.

“Perhaps you can begin by explaining the issue you have, Admiral Lacey?” Kate turned a friendly smile on the man sitting at the other end of the table, effectively cutting the civilian out of the conversation.

“We don’t have an issue as such Brigadier” the Admiral ignored the increasingly noisy shuffling of papers coming from the other end of the table. “Our joint exercises with Australia and Japan have taken up the majority of our fleet”

“I see, Lieutenant what vessels were we requesting?” Kate had the list in front of her in London but enjoyed the conceit that she wasn’t familiar with the mission.

“We should be able to manage with one Corvette or a Destroyer Escort ma’am” Sam replied, hoping that his enjoyment wasn’t obvious to anyone else. “Although three or four long range gunboats would do at a push” Kate turned to look towards the Admiral, clearly waiting for him to explain why there wasn’t so much as a rowing boat left in any Naval port. 

“We can’t just go around loaning out navy ships to anyone who asks without knowing what they’re going to be used for” the civil servant tried to wrestle back control of the conversation.

Kate held up her hand to him “Boats, we’re not asking for ships” she corrected without looking at him, keeping her attention on the Admiral and seeing the spark of recognition in his eyes that meant he knew she wasn’t just a pen pusher. “Admiral?”

“We’ll have two Corvettes at your disposal tomorrow morning” the older man nodded and put his papers into his briefcase. “Sorry for the confusion Brigadier, next time please contact me directly and we can avoid the bureaucrats”

“We’ll take you up on that Admiral, thank you for your help” Kate smiled at him and turned to Sam. “Lieutenant can you liaise with our local teams and recover the artefact as soon as possible, I have something I need you to look into in India when you’re done with this”

“Ma’am” Sam stood and waited for the hologram to disappear before returning the small disc to his backpack. “Admiral, thank you for your help sir”

“Wait a minute, you don’t have the authority….” the civil servant stood to face down the two men. 

“Perkins if you say one more word I’ll recommend you start counting pigeons on Chatham Island” the Admiral stared at the other man from underneath his perfectly positioned hat and braid. “When an ally requests our help we do what we can to provide it and when UNIT are that ally we don’t ask any questions”

Sam Bishop concentrated on checking the messages he was receiving on his watch, managing to avoid laughing out loud at Kate’s suggestion that they get a tour t-shirt created for all the countries he’d taken her to without her actually leaving London. 

******************************************

Osgood heard Kate bark out a laugh from the study and shook her head. She turned from her book and looked over the back of the sofa as the blonde came out to join her. “I guess it went well?” she repositioned the bookmark and closed her book.

“It is the weirdest feeling still” Kate ran her hands through her hair, loosening it from the severe bun she’d adopted to take the call. “Sam should be able to retrieve the satellite remnants in the next day or so”

“Does this mean you’ll be coming to bed with me tonight rather than having pointless conference calls with the New Zealand government?” Osgood folded her arms.

“It does, in fact, if you wanted an early night?” Kate suggested hopefully.

“Not yet, I need to show you something first” Osgood put her book on the coffee table and pulled her laptop from the messenger bag sitting beside the sofa. Ignoring the arm Kate slid around her waist she opened up the report she’d been reading before they’d left the office earlier that evening. “Stop that” she said mildly, not really annoyed that Kate was trying to sneak her fingers underneath her t-shirt but trying to stay in work mode for a few more minutes. 

“Let me get my glasses” Kate huffed and came back a minute later with her reading glasses and two glasses of wine. “Right, what’s more important than fondling my girlfriend?” she asked and sipped her wine.

“One of the skeletons doesn’t quite fit the model” Osgood rested the laptop on Kate’s lap and leaned against her. “Remember the one that was on the other side of the cavern in the catacombs?”

“We thought it was a higher status internment” Kate nodded and quickly read through the report, boosting the size of the forensic photographs her teams had taken. “I see what they mean, it could even be a different species” she took her glasses off and bit the end of one of the legs. “We’ll probably have to redraw the classification rules and hold off on the notification signals until we’re sure”

“Good, that’s what I asked them to do for now” Osgood closed the laptop and snuggled back in beside Kate. “So, what were you saying about an early night?”

Kate kissed the top of her head and leaned her head against the back of the sofa. “I must be losing my touch” she sighed.

“Hardly” Osgood snorted and took her glasses off, leaving them on the coffee table before returning to burrow in beside the blonde. 

“I handled the skeleton myself, I should have seen that” Kate complained.

“In the pitch dark, wearing night vision glasses” Osgood reminded her of the challenges. “And before that the photographs didn’t show those particular bones so there was no way of seeing the differences”

“You’re right, I know, I just don’t like missing the obvious” Kate sighed and looked down at Osgood. “Oh” she said in surprise as she noticed her shirt had been unbuttoned. 

“Obvious enough for you?” Osgood asked and accepted Kate’s apology in the form of a deep, slow kiss. “Upstairs” she said huskily as they separated several minutes later.

“I do love it when you boss me around” Kate grinned and stood up, pulling Osgood up as well before they both headed for their bedroom.


	8. Chapter 8

“It really is magnificent” Kate breathed out in a sigh as she stood in front of the large screen displaying high definition pictures of a mosaic floor. “The tentacles are beautifully realised”

“The archeologists think it will take at least another three months to uncover the entire floor” Osgood scanned through the report. “And they’re asking if there are any other resources we can send to help them” 

“Send out a general email, if there isn’t much happening anywhere else we can assign as many archeologists as we have cleared for field work” Kate continued to look at the intricate detail until her phone vibrated in her pocket. “Stewart” she answered without looking at the screen. “On my way” she dropped the phone back into her pocket before turning around. “Os, can we get some of these images printed off and framed, I’d like one or two in my office?”

“Of course” Osgood nodded and jotted down a reminder in her notebook. She scanned through several of the close-up photographs, choosing the ones she thought Kate would like. 

Kate strode into the laboratory where the team had unboxed the six alien skeletons and laid them out according to the guidelines they were all very familiar with. She pulled on a lab coat from a bundle hanging by the door and explained to the three technicians the measurements to be noted from the bodies before setting to work with callipers and a ruler. The shutters of cameras being used to record the careful examinations were the only noise in the room for the next hour. “Let’s have a break” she said quietly as it became increasingly difficult for her to straighten up from bending over the table. A few more photographs were taken by the other team to finish up the measurements they were working on before they all headed out to the small kitchen that had been shoehorned between two laboratory spaces. “Hello again” Kate smiled at the young woman who was waiting for the kettle to boil.

“Ms Stewart” Lianne Randall jumped slightly, she had been miles away and hadn’t heard them enter the small space. “Were you looking for me?” she asked.

“Ah no, being Dr Stewart for a few hours” Kate gestured to her lab coat. “What are you doing down here?” 

“You found Simon and me a bigger space” Lianne smiled, gesturing over her shoulder at the laboratory behind them. “Thank you, by the way”

“You have everything you need?” Kate asked, nodding her thanks for the cup of tea handed to her by one of her team.

“You want to carry out an inspection?” Lianne grinned, not sure where she was getting the bravery to exchange banter with this woman.

“Do you have biscuits?” Kate asked and waved her on when she got a nod in confirmation.

“Simon?” Lianne shouted. “We have a visitor”

“Oooh is it the cute Captain because he can visit me……” he trailed off as he realised it wasn’t the soldier who’d taken his fancy.

“Dr Stewart wanted to see our new space” Lianne tried to stop herself from laughing at his discomfort.

“There was mention of biscuits” Kate reminded her, looking around. “Where on earth did you get all of this from?” she asked, staring at the rows of clothes racks that now lined half of the lab space.

“Some of its from my former job” Simon took the mug of tea that Lianne handed him, glaring at her briefly before returning to Kate. “I was in the costume department of a TV production company and they were getting rid of some of their modern stock to concentrate on period dramas”

“I do love a good period drama” Kate sighed and dunked a custard cream into her tea.

“Not much use for them here though” Simon pointed out. “The rest are things we’ve had to buy in for rush jobs, like the first one we did for you and Ossie”

Kate had the biscuit halfway to her mouth when she heard him use the diminutive term for her girlfriend. Looking up in shock she felt the tea splash onto her hand as the soggy end of the biscuit dropped into the mug to sink to the bottom. “Thank you” she took the handkerchief handed to her and wiped the splashed tea from her hand and lab coat. “You mean Osgood?”

“She was really upset about us mixing you both up so I told her I’d never forget her beautiful eyes and when she brought the clothes back she said it had actually turned out really well” Simon looked curious and the slight blush he saw on his bosses face told him that he was right to believe there was a story behind their trip. “I told her I preferred her looking annoyed, it made her eyes sparkle, and that I’d call her Ossie just to see it happening”

“And she let you?” Kate was still surprised that Osgood let her use the diminutive Os when they were together outside of work.

“She laughed, said her first dog had been called Ossie and he bit any man that came near her so I’d better watch out” Simon laughed.

Lianne watched the effect this small anecdote had on her boss and pieced it together with the gossip she’d picked up over the last few weeks. “I did offer to build her a backstory with that name but she made it clear that was an even worse idea than making her a scary diva” 

“She did embrace the role play” Kate sipped at her tea, not prepared to give up until she got to the gooey mess at the bottom of her mug. “This is where you create the documents?” Kate wandered over to the six tall filing cabinets, intrigued to see that they were old enough to be built entirely in wood. Neat index cards were held on the front of each drawer by small brass frames.

“Yes ma’am” Lianne walked across and pulled open a drawer. “Each of the folders is for a country and contains blanks for birth certificates, passports, driving licences, military and civilian passes” she pulled out an FBI wallet containing a badge and space for the name of the agent.

“This is very impressive” Kate was surprised how quickly they had managed to set everything up.

“We’re also certified by the Home and Foreign offices to issue actual passports and driving licences so that should speed up the process for getting day-to-day paperwork issued as quickly as possible” Lianne was proud of the small corner of the Tower that they’d claimed.

“It’s probably just as well we have a large contingent of armed soldiers to protect this place from attack, you’ve probably got items of more use to the bad guys than some of our Black Archive” Kate suggested, half seriously. “Perhaps I should ask Captain Carter to pop down to review security?” she winked at Lianne as she heard the sharp intake of breath from Simon.

**********************************

Osgood yawned and stretched, glancing at the time. “Seven, how did it get to be that late?” she mumbled to herself, glancing at the monitors that showed any changes in how time was experienced within the Tower. They all showed zero so she accepted that rather than a visit from a Time Lord she’d just gotten carried away with the soil analysis that she’d been carrying out from the catacombs.

Kate wandered slowly down the corridors from the laboratory she’d been working in, glad that they’d managed to finish the measurements today and she’d be able to sit at a computer tomorrow to analyse the results. Heading for Osgood’s office she saw the light still on and lightly rapped on the door before pushing it open slowly. “Hey” she said quietly, being in the Tower when most people had left for the day always felt like it warranted whispering.

“I was just going to come find you” Osgood yawned again. “Are you ready to go?”

“We finished the measurements and can get started on the analysis tomorrow” Kate yawned as well. “Os!” she complained as they both yawned in unison. 

“Home” Osgood ordered and threw a few items into her messenger bag.

“Home” Kate held out her hand and walked beside the brunette as they headed for her office. “Damn I left my glasses in the lab coat” she was annoyed at having to go back down to the lower labs.

“You have a spare pair at home” Osgood reminded her, holding up her jacket to allow Kate to slide it on.

********************************************************************

“I’d forgotten how good cheese toasties taste when you’re hungry and tired” Kate smiled around her last bite. “I’ll do the dishes” she took Osgood’s plate and mug. “Go and run a bath, if you like?”

“Don’t take too long” Osgood kissed her cheek and headed upstairs, sorting out laundry and generally tidying up as the bath slowly filled. “Mmmm I didn’t hear you coming up” she leaned back against Kate who had wrapped her arms around her.

“Not too hard to be stealthy on carpet, love” Kate kissed her neck before going to check the bath. “You don’t mind sharing?” she asked as she started getting undressed, hanging up what she needed to and throwing the rest in the laundry basket. 

“When have I ever minded that?” Osgood sighed and left her glasses on the bedside table. “Besides your back is probably killing you so you need this more than I do”

“I need you more than a bath” Kate held onto Osgood’s hand as she stepped into the deep bath before stepping in herself. They settled at either end, Kate’s legs comfortably settling alongside Osgood’s as they both let the water rise to just under their chins. “Best thing I ever bought” she sighed.

“Me or the bath?” Osgood raised her eyebrow in the way she’d practised to make it look just like Kate’s. 

“Hah” Kate blew ripples in the surface of the water and watched as they spread out to reach the edge of the bath. “The bath was expensive but you are priceless darling”

“You’ve been practising the smooth-talk Ms Lethbridge Stewart!” Osgood shook her head. “And I will not be swayed by pretty words” she tried to pretend she was being serious but couldn’t stop laughing. “Except when you say things like that” she finally admitted.

“It’s true” Kate protested, enjoying the blush on the brunette’s cheeks that were as much to do with her being soppy as the temperature of the bath water. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me” she said quietly.

“I think that’s my line” Osgood licked her lips, running her hands against Kate’s calfs and feeling goosebumps run over her own skin. “I thought my life was complete when you headhunted me to work for you and now I can barely remember a time before you were everything to me”

Kate slipped down a little further, letting the hot water soak the bottom of her hair and loosen the final knots of tension in her neck and shoulders. “You’re so good at that” she groaned as Osgood continued to massage her calf muscles. “Come here” she finally decided that passively accepting the touches wasn’t enough. 

Osgood carefully pushed herself up until she was standing and able to turn around, settling down again with her back against Kate’s front and her arms resting on Kate’s knees. “Did you have fun today?” she rested her head on Kate’s shoulder and turned to see the deep brown eyes watching her.

“I don’t get to science very often these days” Kate admitted. “And it was more interesting to work with ancient remains than the MoD committee I should have been attending”

“Kate” Osgood sounded exasperated until Kate started kissing her neck. “Kate” she said in a deeper register and settled against her soft body a little more. “This isn’t exactly relaxing” she sighed and wriggled to get her body even closer to the blonde’s.

“Sorry?” Kate mumbled around Osgood’s earlobe. “I can stop if you want?”

“Don’t you dare” the brunette moaned, dropping her hands to trace along the back of Kate’s thighs. She could feel the muscles tensing and Kate nibbled her ear lobe. “How’s your back?” she whispered.

“Good enough” Kate gently lifted the hair at the base of Osgood’s neck, giving her more room to kiss.

“Bed” Osgood groaned although she didn’t make any move to get out of the bath.

“In a minute” the blonde ran her fingers across Osgood’s shoulder, sliding down to rest between her breasts. “I love holding you like this” she sighed. “So warm and soft”

“You’re warmer” Osgood smiled dreamily.

“Ah, that’s the hormones” Kate chuckled. They lay together in the cooling water for another ten minutes before the blonde let out a heavy sigh. “I’m going to fall asleep if we stay here much longer”

“Alright” Osgood carefully disentangled herself and got out of the bath. She wrapped a large bath sheet around herself and twisted her wet hair in a hand towel. “Here” she held up another towel for Kate. They moved around each other effortlessly, drying off and getting ready for bed. “I know it was a hassle but they made a good job of it” she hung up the towels on the heated rail and looked around the newly refurbished bathroom.

“Cheaper and easier than moving house” Kate was pragmatic about most things and hadn’t minded losing storage space to an enlarged bathroom when it became clear that they needed more space to get ready in the morning. “And neither of us needed a closet any more” she grinned at the old joke.


	9. Chapter 9

“Sergeant, I thought you were off today?” Josh asked.

“Sir, I was but Osgood asked me to help her with a project” Gaby sipped from her mug of coffee. 

“She did?” Josh was intrigued and a little annoyed but he shrugged and continued heading for his office. He was Osgood’s friend but she didn’t seem to ask him to help out with anything these days. 

“Osgood” Gaby waited at the open office door for the scientist to finish writing in a folder and look up at her.

“Hi” Osgood stretched and came round her desk, heading for the situation room with the young woman at her side. “Thanks for coming in on your day off, I thought you’d like to be around for this”

Gaby raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask anything else as they walked into the large room. Several scientists nodded at her and she smiled as she realised that she knew the names of most of these people after joining the Tower squad two months before. She stopped and stood at attention as she noticed Kate leaning against the desk that Osgood sat behind. “Ma’am” 

“At ease” Kate waved a hand and returned to watching the largest screen in the room. “Osgood?” she asked without turning round.

“Five minutes out ma’am” Osgood typed in some commands and then sat back in her chair, smiling at the confused looking soldier. “Remember last month you asked me what we would do with the remains now we’d recovered them?”

“Yes, you said you already knew which aliens to contact because we had the smartest alien anatomist on staff” Gaby winked at Osgood as Kate snorted.

Osgood rolled her eyes and checked a message coming through from McGillop. “The remains are in position ma’am”

“Good, let’s make sure the area is cleared before they reclaim the coffins” Kate said calmly. 

They all stared at a small point of light moving around a globe. “Wait, there’s an alien spaceship up there?” Gaby finally realised what she was looking at.

“For another few minutes,” Osgood nodded. She didn’t seem overly excited, just watching her laptop screen and typing answers to questions popping up. “One minute,” she said quietly.

The rest of the room seemed to tense a little and Gaby watched as the small red dot stopped moving. Her hand automatically went to her right hip before she remembered that she wasn’t armed. “They’re friendly enough” Kate murmured quietly, seeing her movement in her peripheral vision. “And we’re doing them a favour” 

“Signal received confirming identification,” Osgood said quietly but the room was silent and her voice was clear enough for everyone to hear.

“Reply with the protocols” Kate crossed her arms and continued leaning against the desk.

Gaby felt a small tremor under her feet and looked around but nobody seemed overly concerned. “Is that normal?” she swallowed to clear her suddenly dry mouth.

“The coffins have been retrieved” Osgood confirmed before turning to Gaby. “Matter transport for this species involves some displacement of energy, that’s what you felt” she explained.

“Osgood?” Kate asked, keen to get the handover completed.

“Confirmation from the vessel, they’ve sent their thanks and are leaving orbit now,” Osgood said as they all watched the small point of light move away from the planet on the screen. She looked up to see Gaby trying not to look overawed. “Confirmation from Pharos II ma’am, they’ve left the solar system,” she said several minutes later.

“Good work everybody, Osgood, Douglas with me” Kate strode from the room and Osgood and Gaby followed her.

“I can’t believe that just happened, thanks” Gaby had slowed a little to allow some space between them and Kate. 

Osgood smiled and pushed her glasses up her nose “You’re welcome, it was pretty cool” she grinned.

“Close the door,” Kate said as they both walked into her office.

“Sir” Gaby stood at attention again when she saw Colonel Shindi standing in Kate’s office.

“Take a seat Sergeant” he offered and sat down as well.

“Thank you for coming in on your day off,” Kate said. “The skeletons we returned today were from the planet Trion” she explained, sitting back and crossing her legs. “We don’t know too much about how several of them ended up on our planet at the time of the Vesuvius eruption but it seems that they were able to conceal themselves amongst the population a lot more successfully than some other visitors” Kate waved at the pictures hanging on her wall showing extracts of the mosaic floor, complete with tentacles and what appeared to be horns. “They were some kind of expeditionary force and we’ve been assured that they were only interested in scientific research” she looked skeptical and Gaby bit her lip to stop herself from smiling. 

The Colonel huffed “And they couldn’t say if there were others then or now?” 

“They were very keen to deny that they currently have anyone on Earth” Kate shrugged slightly. “I got the impression they have some history with the Doctor and were making sure they stayed on the right side of him, apparently our history with him is well known”

“We think one of the Doctor’s companions may have been from the same planet” Osgood explained.

“I suppose they owe us a favour now” Shindi didn’t seem overly keen to believe the reassurances they had been given but recognised that there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“They said as much” Kate nodded. “And they also wanted to confer their highest civilian honour on the person responsible for returning their brethren” 

Gaby was interested in the background she was being given but confused as to why she was there. “So you need to go to their planet?” she asked Kate.

“Ms Stewart has suggested that the honour should go to someone else” Shindi winked at Kate.

“If I have any more titles it’ll waste a ream of paper every time someone prints off one of my emails” she smiled. “I thought a civilian honour should go to one of the military team involved, a nice reminder that while science leads we do so with military support” she quirked an eyebrow at Shindi, passing the conversation to him.

“In light of this we’d like you to be the recipient of the Order of Misos” Shindi watched carefully to see how the young woman will react.

“But you and Captain Carter were the senior officers sir,” she says then clenches her fist in annoyance at the ungrateful reply.

“We were” Shindi nodded. “However I’ve been reviewing the mission reports and it seems that you were instrumental in making the outcome successful with your quick thinking and decision making while Carter and I were still getting into position”

“Several members of my squad were there sir” the young woman replied.

“If I’d known it was going to be this difficult I’d have kept the damn thing for myself,” Kate said dryly.

“I’m sorry ma’am, I don’t want to seem ungrateful” Gaby blushed.

“The Trion’s explained that this honour is in memory of a time of civil unrest in their society and they wanted to mark all that we’d done to retrieve their fallen colleagues” Shindi was amused at the reactions of both Gaby and Kate and could see Osgood smiling as well.

“I’d be honoured sir, ma’am” Gaby finally realised that there was no talking her way out of this.

“Excellent” Kate sat up in her chair, pulling herself towards the desk. “Osgood will let us know when the radiation levels have dropped below safe and we can retrieve the package”

Osgood laughed at the look of concern on the Sergeant’s face. “They transported it down when they collected the coffins” she explained. “Dr Stewart is exaggerating, it should have cooled down in hour or so and you won’t be glowing in the dark” 

“Oh I don’t know, that might come in handy” Shindi laughed.

“Right, well done Sergeant” Kate stood and shook the young woman’s hand. “Osgood will you pass the package onto the Colonel when it’s ready?”

“Ma’am” Osgood stood as well and headed for the door.

Gaby followed the Colonel along the corridor and struggled to catch up with what had happened in the last hour. “A word, Sergeant” Shindi indicated his office while he collected a report from a soldier who was waiting outside the room. “Right, sorry about that” he finally settled himself behind his desk and looked at her. “I’m afraid what we’ve just discussed is only known to those with the highest security clearance so we won’t be having a ceremony as such”

“Sir” Gaby said sharply, relieved that there wasn’t going to be a fuss made.

“However you will have a new medal on your dress uniform and your squad will be told it’s classified” Shindi knew that this would be enough to stop most of the speculation. “If anyone asks too many questions…..” he raised an eyebrow.

“You’ll be the first to know, sir” Gaby stared at a point on the wall above his head, knowing that she would deal with anyone herself and that he knew this as well.

“Excellent, I suggest you carry on with your day off in that case” Shindi turned his attention to the reports sitting on his desk and smiled to himself as he heard her walk quickly down the corridor.

**********************************************************

“I think Josh is annoyed with me for something” Osgood sighed as she waited for results to print off. 

“That’s a shame,” Kate said insincerely as she read through emails on her phone. “Did we have anything planned for next weekend?” she looked up to see Osgood staring at her, her arms crossed. “What?”

“You really need to get over the Josh thing” Osgood looked around to make sure they really were the last ones in the office. 

“If there was a ‘Josh-thing’ I’m sure I’d be completely over it by now” Kate made the air quotes gesture around his name. “But there isn’t so I’m not” Kate nodded then played back what she’d just said in her own head. “Wait, that wasn’t…..”

“Uh huh” Osgood picked the last piece of paper from the printer and stuck it in the folder she was holding. “He’s a friend and I don’t want him being mad at me” she signed the last page and closed the folder before handing it to Kate. “Why do we need to be free next weekend?” she changed the subject.

“What?” Kate glanced at the title on the folder and placed it on top of one of the two piles she had been nurturing on her desk all day. “Oh right, Liz has asked if we wanted to go out for dinner with her and Mel”

“I don’t think we have anything planned, we can check the calendar when we get home” Osgood was busy closing down her laptop. “Speaking of which, are you ready to leave?”

“You’re keen” Kate smiled as she slipped on her raincoat and waited for Osgood to check that she had everything in her messenger bag. 

“Apparently I have to get home and remind my adorable girlfriend that I don’t like kissing boys” Osgood threw out a long-suffering sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may seem to stop with a few loose ends but I will write another story to pick them up and carry this series on :)


End file.
